Grateful Dead, zoo poetry top 2010 wasteful spending

A new report by one of the Senate's top watchers of wasteful spending slams $11.5 billion worth of items from 2010. The report will no doubt become fodder for future budget debates.

Sen. Tom Coburn's Wastebook 2010 highlights, for instance, $615,000 in federal funds to digitize photographs, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead. The money went to the University of California at Santa Cruz, the band's chosen spot for an archive that is supposed to be free to the public.

As 2010 comes to a close, the Oklahoma Republican says "even those lucky enough to have jobs have had to tighten their belts. Yet, Congress continues to find new and extravagant ways to waste tax dollars."

ABC News got a preview of Coburn's report and has a story in the video at the top.

Coburn features the nearly $3 million in taxpayer money that went to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so they can play video games such as World of Warcraft. The research is designed to help "organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace," the report says.

Then there is this: nearly $1 million was spent on poetry in the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Chicago zoos to help raise awareness of environmental issues.

Coburn suggests a word from Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven might be more appropriate for the taxpayers who foot the bill:

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About Catalina Camia

Catalina Camia leads the OnPolitics online community and has been at USA TODAY since 2005. She has been a reporter or editor covering politics and Congress for two decades, including stints at The Dallas Morning News and Congressional Quarterly. Follow her at @USATOnPolitics.